Chapter 8 chapter eight

For a while they sat in silence as the taxiship roared through hundreds of miles of beetle-like tunnels toward its destination, Trantor University.In the end, it was Gail who broke the silence first: "Are you serious what you told Chairman Chen? I mean, if you are executed, will it really accelerate the decline of Trantor?" Seldon replied: "I have never lied about the research results of psychohistory, not to mention it is not beneficial to lie now. Chairman Chen knows what I am telling the truth. He is a very shrewd political figure. Due to work nature of the relationship, politicians have good intuitions about the truths of psychohistory."

"But do you need to accept exile?" Gail asked puzzled, but Seldon didn't answer this time. When the taxi spaceship came to Trantor University, Gai Yu's muscles were completely useless, and he was almost dragged out of the spaceship. The entire campus was shrouded in a sea of ​​light, and Gail remembered that the world of Trantor also had a sun. The buildings on campus are different from the rest of Trantor.The blue-gray color of steel cannot be seen here, but is filled with a piece of silver, a metallic luster similar to ivory. Seldon said suddenly, "It looks like there are soldiers."

"What?" Gail looked towards the square, and really saw a sentry standing at the gate. When the two walked up to the sentinel, another army captain appeared. The officer asked kindly, "Dr. Seldon?" "yes." "We are waiting for you. From now on, you and your subordinates will be under the supervision of martial law. I have been ordered to inform you that you have a total of six months to prepare for the transfer to Terminal Star." "Six months!" Gai Yu wanted to explode, but Seldon gently pulled his elbow. "This is the order I received," the officer repeated.

As soon as the officer walked away, Gale turned to Seldon and said, "Why stop me? What can I do in six months? This is murder in disguise." "Be quiet, be quiet, and talk in my office." Seldon's office wasn't too big, but it had the most complete anti-espionage and anti-reconnaissance equipment.If a spy beam shoots here, what is reflected back is neither the suspicious silence nor the obvious anti-spy static field, but just a very ordinary conversation, which is randomly generated by the computer voice library containing various sounds and intonations. produced.

"Now we can talk with confidence," Seldon said calmly, "In fact, six months is enough." "I do not understand." "Son, because in our plan, all other people's actions can be used by me. Didn't I tell you that Chairman Chen's thinking mode has been clearly grasped by us. It can even be said that he is the first person in history. The most psychologically analyzed. We would never have sparked this trial if the time and circumstances had not been ripe to ascertain that we would get the desired outcome." "But can you arrange..."

"Exiled to Terminus? What's the difficulty?" Seldon pressed a certain part of the desk with his hand, and the wall behind him immediately slid open a small part.The button has electric eyes that respond only to his fingerprints. "There are several rolls of microfilm in there," Seldon said to Gale. "Please take out the roll marked 'Terminal'." Gale took out the roll of film as promised, and Seldon loaded it into the projector, then handed over a pair of eyepieces.After Gail adjusted the eyepiece, the contents of the microfilm appeared in the fundus of his eyes.

"But this..." Gail said puzzled. Seldon asked back, "Why are you surprised?" "Have you spent two years preparing to migrate?" "Two and a half years. Of course, we were not sure that he would choose Terminus, but we hoped that he would make such a decision, so we acted according to this assumption..." "But why, Dr. Seldon? Why did you arrange for yourself to be exiled to such a remote place? If you stayed on Trantor, wouldn't everything be in your hands better and more?" "Why? There are several reasons here. If we go to work on Terminus, we will be able to get the support of the empire, and it will no longer arouse suspicion and fear of endangering the security of the empire."

Gail asked again: "But you aroused those suspicions and fears in the first place, just to get them to sentence you to exile. I still don't understand that." "It seems impossible for more than 20,000 families to willingly emigrate to the end of the galaxy." "But why force them to go?" Gail paused and said, "Can't you tell me why?" "The time has not yet come. As far as you know, we will build a scientific shelter on the terminal star, and another will be built on the other side of the galaxy, or you can say," he continued with a smile: "in the stars As for the rest, I'm dying soon, and you're going to see many things I don't see... Don't be like this, don't be like this, don't be surprised, don't comfort me. The doctors told me that I At most, I can only live for another year or two. But before that, I will fulfill the biggest wish in my life, so I can die without regret.”

"What happens after you're gone?" "Don't worry, there will naturally be successors, maybe you are one of them, these people will kick the final kick for my plan. That is to instigate Anacreon's rebellion at the right time and in the right way , and then everything starts to work on its own.” "I still don't understand." "You will understand later." Seldon's wrinkled face showed peace and fatigue at the same time: "Most people will go to the terminal star, but some people will still stay, these are not difficult to arrange .As for myself..."

His last words were spoken so quietly that Gale could just barely hear him say, "I'm done."